It has been determined that in order to manufacture low cost silicon solar cells large quantities thereof must be made by mass production techniques. To manufacture silicon solar cells in mass production one must utilize a printing technique for applying the conductive material contact pattern on the incident surface of the solar cell to permit efficient collection of the electrical energy as generated. Once the printed contact pattern is applied, the combination of the silicon solar cell with the pattern thereon must be placed into a furnace at an elevated temperature to fire the printed contact material. When the printed contact material is fired it traditionally "punches through" the very thin junction, which usually is on the order of 0.3 microns in thickness, thus shorting the junction and rendering the solar cell inoperative.
To combat this problem, in printed contact solar cells currently being manufactured, the thickness of the junction has been increased somewhat. When this occurs the efficiency of the solar cell is substantially decreased. In addition thereto, even with increased junction thickness, some punch through still occurs and it remains extremely critical to control the temperature to which the cell is raised at the time of firing to form the printed front contact pattern.
As is well known an antireflective coating must be provided on the surface of the solar cell to achieve proper operation. Traditionally, the antireflective coating is applied after the printed contact pattern is produced on the surface of the solar cell. When such occurs the material forming the antireflective coating operates as an insulator on the surface of the front contact pattern of the solar cell. Thus to provide appropriate electrical contact the oxidized insulative layer forming the antireflective coating must be removed from at least a portion of the front contact pattern so that electrical connections can be made to the cell thereby to collect and remove the energy produced in the solar cell.